Absorbent articles, such as diapers, incontinence garments, training pants, sanitary napkins, panty liners, and the like are well known in the art. These articles, which are often disposable, are capable of absorbing and retaining fluids and other bodily discharges. Some absorbent articles, such as pull-on type absorbent articles, include a central absorbent member and side panels extending from and interconnecting respective front and back regions of the absorbent member forming a waist assembly.
Some known absorbent articles include liquid impermeable side panels to prevent liquid discharged by a wearer from leaking through the side panels. Such side panels can be impervious to water vapor as well as liquid. Side panels that are impermeable to both liquids and water vapor can cause the absorbent article often to feel hot and clammy to the wearer, especially after a bodily discharge. Furthermore, the lack of permeability to both liquid and water vapor may cause irritation to the skin of the wearer around the waist. In addition to concerns over skin wellness, liquid impermeable side panels often lack aesthetic and tactile qualities desired in absorbent articles.
Other known side panels for absorbent articles are “breathable”. Such side panels, which are typically constructed from nonwoven materials, are “breathable” in the sense that air can pass through the side panels. While often providing a more skin friendly product, breathable side panels often suffer from inadequate liquid impermeability. That is, breathable side panels often lack sufficient liquid impermeability to prevent bodily fluids from leaking through the side panels.
Additionally, it is often difficult for users (e.g., wearers, caregivers) of absorbent articles to readily determine if the article they are using has non-breathable or breathable side panels. That is, the articles having breathable side panels are often not readily discernible from articles having non-breathable outer covers. As mentioned above, breathable side panels often provide a skin-healthier product from the wearer's perspective as compared to non-breathable side panels.
Thus, there exists a need for an absorbent article including a waist assembly that is sufficiently water-vapor permeable to provide a healthy and comfortable product for the wearer, but that is also sufficiently liquid impermeable to inhibit bodily fluids from leaking through the waist assembly. Moreover, there exists a need for such an absorbent article configured to enhance the noticeability of the waist assembly's breathability to a user.